Ben Larson's Profile

The Carter Report

 

What I am about to tell you is the true story of the manhunt for the Mad Trapper of Rat River. From the confidential Carter Report. 
Constable William Carter writes: 

​

The interrogation of Johnson by Millen at McPherson

From witnesses accounts of Contable Millen's interviewing Johnson, they stated that Constable Millen was lax in soliciting information from Johnson of his intentions, his probable location of camp, of trapping in the country and other useful information necessary for the police to have on a stranger to the Territories… The witnesses also added that as Johnson paid in cash for all goods purchased, the fact influenced Constable Millen's questioning of Johnson.

​

The shooting of King - from Constable King and McDowell

King and Special Constable Bernard advanced to the cabin with their dog teams. Constable McDowell and Special Constable from Aklavik Lazarus Sittichiulis remained hidden behind the river bank; covering the cabin was Constable McDowell, with a rifle. King knocked at the door of the cabin several times but there was no answer. Johnson was inside, as he looked through the window opening. King explained his visit but Johnson ducked back and did not say a word. King was just going to knock again when a bullet came through the door, and King fell to the ground. 

​

Dynamiting Johnson's Cabin - Inspector Eames' own words to me

When the posse arrived on the site, the dynamiting commenced later by throwing sticks of dynamite at the cabin, which had no effect. An attempt was made to drop a stick of dynamite down the chimney pipe; this had no effect; did not explode, or maybe Johnson defused the dynamite. As reported a bundle of sticks of dynamite was thrown at the cabin, and this also had no effect. According to Inspector Eames, 'the dynamite did practically no damage to the cabin, and it wasn't until after Johnson had escaped was the cabin destroyed by manual labour, so that Johnson could not return and again use it as a so-called fort.
Nature deteriorated the power of the dynamite before it could be useful and all of it was of no effect. The dynamite which was obtained from Blake, had been stolen from the Northern Mining Exploration cache.

Sometime during the night Johnson escaped and it wasn't found out until the posse returned the next day for another attempt at dislodging Johnson, so further patrols had to be set up to locate the man

The cairn commemorating RCMP Constable Millen , shot by Johnson on January 30, 1931, located on Millen Creek near the site of the second shootout where Millen was killed.

The shooting of Millen - from Riddell and Verville

A patrol of four men were sent out to scour the countryside for Johnson. They found him camped against the riverbank, fairly well up in some light bush, where fire-wood was handy.  A small tarp was erected which faced towards the river, and when the four men, Millen, Verville, Riddell and Gardlund came up they heard Johnson whistling, singing and cutting wood. They debated what to do and with the decision started firing at the tarp. Altogether they fired about 200 rounds of ammunition (a good example of why there was a constant shortage of ammunition throughout the manhunt). They could hear the bullets striking Johnson's pots and pans or cooking utensils, or whatever he had. (None of these items were turned in.) Millen and Riddell were together advancing head-on when a shot rang out, and in Riddell's own words, just missed him. He ducked down behind a bank and when he looked up he saw Millen pointing his gun off to his left at about 11 o'clock and fired a shot. Then Johnson retaliated and Millen dropped to the ground.

The 12th of February we were at LaPierre House. There were discussions about what would be done if Johnson was met with and, although no orders were given, I'm certain the men were in accord to shoot first and ask questions later.

We knew that Johnson was not far away as "Wop" had spotted the well-known snowshoe trail on the Eagle River. So it happened that those that were up in the lead commenced firing and Johnson turned to run back the way he had come. As of yet, he had not donned his snowshoes.

It was not known at the time that Johnson carried a box of .22 ammunition in his hip pocket. It was determined later that someone had hit the ammunition with a 270-300 bullet making quite a mess of the hip (Johnson had turned and was running away). Johnson donned his snow-shoes and made for the bank of the river, presumably to get into some bush where he could better defend himself. At this point, Hersey ran over to the opposite bank where he could get a better shot. (Johnson's body was seen to jerk when he was hit on the .22 ammunition.) Johnson could not make it up the bank due to the shattered hip and returned to the centre of the river. At this point he must have been a dying MAN because he bled profusely.

Taking his rifle off his shoulder, he pulled it out of the scabbard; uncorked the muzzle, the cork being tied to the rifle with a string, brought the rifle to his shoulder and fired at Hersey, who was kneeling down, and the bullet struck Hersey's elbow, that was resting on his knee; passed through one lung, collapsing it entirely, nicked the heart and nicked the other lung. Johnson was pinned down by the rifle fire or was unable to move and, as I said before, a dying MAN. He had taken off his snowshoes and laid them on the snow; having placed his bedroll in front of him, he was lying down on the shoes prepared to fight it out.

Inspector Eames called out three times for Johnson to surrender but Johnson just waved his hand and finally Eame's section commenced firing which was taken up by the party on Johnson's left.